The Goblin Emperor

When this book was recommended to me, I'll admit I heard the title, sighed, and thought, "Man, I'm not really feeling the High Fantasy vibe right now." My reluctance grew deeper when I heard is was Steampunk as well as High Fantasy. But it came highly recommended, and by two people whose literary opinions I respect, so I tried to put aside my momentary prejudices and tucked in.

I'm so glad I did.

This book was as far from the typical High Fantasy novel as you can get, and the Steampunk element was just that: an element, rather than a driving force. In truth, it reminded me of the surprise and delight I felt when I first read [b:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|14201|Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|Susanna Clarke|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1357027589s/14201.jpg|3921305], [a:Susanna Clarke|8842|Susanna Clarke|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207159127p2/8842.jpg]'s singularly amazing novel, which was ostensibly about two magicians and the workings of magic in late 19th-century England, but was in fact so much more about the growth and struggles of men and women, with magic almost more a set dressing than a topic or plot device. The goblins and elves and magic in The Goblin Emperor are, while present and much discussed, utterly incidental to the real story, which is this: How does a decent man discover both that he IS decent, and that despite having no reasons to be, WANTS to be?

In this, the book also reminded me of the film The Others, with Nicole Kidman. That film was a turn-of-the-century ghost story, and yet despite the beautiful cinematography and costumes, it could have easily been filmed on a blank grey stage, because it relied utterly on the actors and their inner struggles, and had hardly a single noticeable special effect to distract the audience. This is The Goblin Emperor's strength, too; for all that the trappings of High Fantasy led me to expect sword fights and magic duels, this book could have taken place in modern New York or a near-future space station, or on a minimally-set stage. The setting was incidental, the characters were all.

Katherine Addison (or Sarah Monette to her friends, I'm sure) managed to write a fantasy novel about a young man's personal growth in a conservative culture, with hardly any of the expected tropes of the genre, and I loved it.

This book defies genre conventions in a number of ways. It does feature a young man who turns out to be critically important to the future of a fantasy land. But the thing is that Maia, the eponymous Goblin Emperor is not special. In fact he is exceptional in his ordinariness.

The story is also strangely lacking in the usual fantasy elements. There are no epic battles, there's no clear villain for most of the book and events just sort of unfold at a sedate pace. It's really more of an exploration of character and setting than it is a story.

And yet it does what it does with such skill that anything it lacks is easily swept aside.

What's It All About?

Maia is the fourth son of the Emperor of the Elflands. He has lived most of his life in exile at a country estate, hidden away due to the embarrassment of his half elf, half goblin heritage. However the sudden death of the Emperor and his other sons thrusts a young, unprepared Maia into the role of Emperor.

Maia has to deal with court intrigues, his ignorant of court ways and come to grips with his miserable childhood, all while ruling the Elflands.

He's Just Like Me!

As I mentioned earlier Maia is a very ordinary person and that makes him and his behavior easy to understand. His mild personality and determination to do the right thing make him an underdog you cheer for even though he's technically the most powerful person in the book.

What Katherine Addison has done here is take the turmoil and doubt that most people go through in their teenage years and create an external counterpoint for it that adults can relate to.

Maia spends a lot of time berating himself for his inadequacies and if he was just a regular teenager, this would probably come across as self-indulgent and whiny (as teenagers do) but as someone shouldering an unasked for burden without proper training his doubts and missteps are much more appealing.

From beginning to end this book is a thorough and believable portrait of this honest young man. Other characters do not get nearly the same sort of depth in their treatment. Because the POV sticks firmly to Maia and because, as the book emphasises, his position as Emperor isolates him from other people we only get to see the other characters as they interact with him.

What's The Plot?

Well, there really isn't much of one beyond what I already told you. Things happen but there's no urgency to the events and Maia does not drive them . He's not completely passive but he primarily reacts to the things that happen around him.

Did You Like It?

Very much so. Maia is just an instantly likable and relatable character. Inhabiting his viewpoint draws you in and on through the book. You want him to succeed and be happy.

There is a mystery over his father's death but it is downplayed for most of the book, as are the attempted coups and similar moments which would be the dramatic center of other fantasy books.

Addison is more interested in how things affect Maia and how his sudden ascension will change the Elflands

Social Change

. Maia is, by the nature of his arrival on the throne and his upbringing, an agent of social change. It's not that he sets out to make great changes and throughout most of the book we are shown how limited he is despite being the ruler of the Elflands.

But Maia's worldview is very modern and inevitably his approach impacts the ruling bodies around him as they either resist or eagerly take advantage of the new opportunities that present themselves.

Which leads me on to one of my criticisms of the book. Addison has used world history to construct a very credible post-medieval society. What she doesn't really do is provide a good explanation in story for Maia's progressive attitudes. I can't see it as something he would have learned during his upbringing and his access to other points of view would have been extremely limited.

Stubbornly Noble

If Maia's progressive attitudes feel like a stretch, his naive attitude seems much more natural as does his drive to do the right thing. But he is noble to an almost superhuman level.

While he frequently berates himself for his failures, he never really seems to be tempted to do the wrong thing. He's nice to a fault. Combine that with the fact that the opposition to him is not given a strong presence in the book and you do come away with the feeling that everything goes his way.

And yet I'm going to give the novel a pass on that because the story really isn't about conflict, or at least not that sort of conflict. Instead it has the unfashionable and perhaps naively romantic message that if you do the right thing and treat people well, it will all work out.

Buy, Borrow or Skip

If you have any interest in fantasy at all then this one is a buy.

A comment I received on one my status updates for this book gave me the excellent advice to read the appendix on naming conventions before reading the book. I received this advice too late to do me any good, but if you are considering reading this book, I pass the advice on to you in the hopes that you may benefit from what I could not.

So, this is a book about a intermittently abused and neglected kid who suddenly finds himself emperor, and that his life is thereby much circumscribed and only a little improved.

It is also a book that will, when read in a lump, have you producing sentences like the previous.

I was going to say "This book will probably appeal to fans of [b:Melusine|492069|Melusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths, #1)|Sarah Monette|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388352167s/492069.jpg|2484], by [a:Sarah Monette|128570|Sarah Monette|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1416683160p2/128570.jpg]," but I just looked, and apparently Katherine Addison is Sarah Monette. So, I'm not sure what else to compare it to.

I heard raves for this book when it was published 4 months ago, but didn't get around to reading it until now. I loved it. Couldn't put it down. Unless I am very surprised (and delighted) by books over the next months, I will be nominating this for a Hugo.
It's kinda classic fantasy -- there are elves and goblins, an emperor, castles -- but it subverts a lot of the usual. There are no big battles. The ignored, youngest son who is thrust suddenly into the throne has to deal with the burden of being a king, including boring meetings, and not just with plots to overthrow him. In one of those plots, he's saved by the fact that he's treated people decently, rather than by wielding a magical sword.
The world building never seems heavy -- I didn't notice any info dumps. I absolutely ADORE the fact that people have ears that can be raised or flattened, and that's part of the body language the characters read, and struggle to keep "poker-faced".